Kiran Datar

Kiran Datar is the Managing Director of WebEx Communications India Pvt. Ltd. He has over 13 years of experience in various high technology and finance positions. He co-introduced the concept of Conferencing Services in India and has a wealth of experience in the emerging Indian telecom scenario. Kiran holds a B.S. (Physics & Economics) from Middlebury College, VT and an M.S. (Operations Research) from Columbia University, New York.After coming back to India, he started CyberBazaar. It was a unique service that provided end-to-end Audio Conferencing services. Under Kiran Œs stewardship, CyberBazaar rode the boom in the software wave and very quickly became profitable. In 2005, CyberBazaar was acquired by WebEx Inc., for US $4 million. In 2007, Cisco acquired WebEx with their respective visions aligned to provide web collaboration with a view to accelerating business processes. Ten years from the launch of CyberBazaar, Kiran Œs vision was finally validated when Cisco bought WebEx for USD 3.2 billion. Kiran had very early on recognized that collaboration was the only way the IT industry would reach the heights it was destined to and now Cisco subscribed to that belief.

Kiran Œs understanding of telecom and communication comes from his stints as business analyst and strategist with leading banks in the US. His biggest challenge today is to stay focused on the prize, even as bigger are gunning for a share in the conferencing pie.